After a standing crop is mowed or cut, the windrow is left for two or three days to "cure" in the sun and wind before being picked up with a hay baler and baled. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,605 states that the moisture content of the windrow material should be approximately 17% by weight at the time it is baled and cautions that if the material becomes overcured, it then fractures on impact and produces unsatisfactory bales likely to crumble during baling. The patentee provides a hay conditioner which picks up the windrow material, deposits it on a conveyor where it lies flat as it is being conveyed, sprays the upper surface of the material with steam from a steam generator and then deposits the steam conditioned hay on the ground for either subsequent pick-up by a hay baler or the treated material is discharged onto the conveyor of a following hay baler.
It is also known in the art to apply chemicals, such as preservatives to grain or the like. Thus, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,777, grain is placed into a hopper and as it is conveyed upwardly out of the hopper, it is sprayed with a preservative so as to prevent the growth of mold. The patentee thus eliminates the step of drying the harvested grain which was the common practice for preventing the growth of mold and the like thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,215 discloses a mobile chaffcutter in which windrowed hay is picked up and conveyed to a chaff-cutter by means of a covered conveyor. As the hay moves along the conveyor, it is moistened by steam applied to it through jets located beneath the input region of the conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,244 discloses a mobile forage harvester for harvesting the crop material, chopping the material and blowing the chopped material into a receptacle. The harvester is provided with a water supply system for periodically injecting a controllable amount of water into the stream of crop material to minimize gumming up of the material in the harvester.